Thoughts on second hand used M.2 NVME SSD?

[Carson.C]

Hi all,

 

I saw a lot of cheap second hand used M.2 (Samsung EVO and stuff like that) on eBay and Facebook market place and I was wondering what are some of the downside of buying a used M.2 drive? If they are any.

 

Thanks in advance

[SorryBella]

2 minutes ago, Carson.C said:

I was wondering what are some of the downside of buying a used M.2 drive?

You dont and wont know about its condition unless the seller attaches a SMART report of that drive on the post or give it to you in which a lot of case of experienced seller wont give to you.

[Carson.C]

3 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

You dont and wont know about its condition unless the seller attaches a SMART report of that drive on the post or give it to you in which a lot of case of experienced seller wont give to you.

uh... what is a SMART report?

 

[SorryBella]

1 minute ago, Carson.C said:

uh... what is a SMART report?

 

S.M.A.R.T is basically a report of drive conditions and its overall data of write and read history (usually in count and size), and its power on hours and cycles. It helps you to understand if its still good enough, start backing up just in case, or quickly backup and replace your drive.

[Carson.C]

1 minute ago, SorryClaire said:

S.M.A.R.T is basically a report of drive conditions and its overall data of write and read history (usually in count and size), and its power on hours and cycles. It helps you to understand if its still good enough, start backing up just in case, or quickly backup and replace your drive.

Is it really difficult to do a SMART report? Like is it possible for me to ask them to do a SMART report?

[SorryBella]

6 minutes ago, Carson.C said:

Is it really difficult to do a SMART report? Like is it possible for me to ask them to do a SMART report?

Its as easy as installing third party SMART reader like CrystalDiskInfo, but as i stated before its pretty much blowing the condition so wide open many would just walk away - especially with the misleading "threshold" value which isnt really the fault of the SMART reader but its overall erroneous value - so a lot of seller either pretend they dont know, actually dont know, or downright refuse to show.

 

As long as it reads good at around 98-100% condition with a low power on cycle and hours, and low TBW and write cycle, it should be okay but imo i always stick with brand new drive anyway because a lot of times its not that much of a saving worth doing if i store genuinely important data on it.

[johndms]

25 minutes ago, Carson.C said:

Hi all,

 

I saw a lot of cheap second hand used M.2 (Samsung EVO and stuff like that) on eBay and Facebook market place and I was wondering what are some of the downside of buying a used M.2 drive? If they are any.

 

Thanks in advance

I would be extremely wary of used m.2 drives right now with the recent explosion of Chia crypto farmers. I won't get into the gory details but as you may be aware, SSDs have a limited number of write cycles calculated as Terabytes Written (TBW). Chia crypto farmers can exhaust the TBW of a single consumer SSD in a matter of weeks and you'll only know this by looking at the SMART information. Serious Chia farmers tend to use multiple m.2 drives simultaneously and I imagine once their drives start showing signs of failure, those less honorable farmers will try to pawn those drives off to unknowing individuals.

[Mister Woof]

I would personally skip secondhand storage myself unless it's just part of a whole computer you're buying.

 

The cost savings isn't worth the potential for lost data.

[Carson.C]

1 hour ago, SorryClaire said:

Its as easy as installing third party SMART reader like CrystalDiskInfo, but as i stated before its pretty much blowing the condition so wide open many would just walk away - especially with the misleading "threshold" value which isnt really the fault of the SMART reader but its overall erroneous value - so a lot of seller either pretend they dont know, actually dont know, or downright refuse to show.

 

As long as it reads good at around 98-100% condition with a low power on cycle and hours, and low TBW and write cycle, it should be okay but imo i always stick with brand new drive anyway because a lot of times its not that much of a saving worth doing if i store genuinely important data on it.

Okay so what would be your recommendation of getting a small fast boot drive for cheap? Because I already have a 1TB M.2 but I want that to be my mass storage.

[Mister Woof]

32 minutes ago, Carson.C said:

Okay so what would be your recommendation of getting a small fast boot drive for cheap? Because I already have a 1TB M.2 but I want that to be my mass storage.

What country do you live in and what is your budget?

[Carson.C]

5 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

What country do you live in and what is your budget?

I live in the UK and for the budget I guess anything below £30?

[Mister Woof]

1 minute ago, Carson.C said:

I live in the UK and for the budget I guess anything below £30?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patriot-P300-128GB-Low-Power-Consumption/dp/B0822Y6N1C/ref=sr_1_32?dchild=1&keywords=m.2+nvme&qid=1623783278&sr=8-32

 

good enough for a boot drive

 

20 for the 128

30 for the 256

[Carson.C]

Just now, Mister Woof said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patriot-P300-128GB-Low-Power-Consumption/dp/B0822Y6N1C/ref=sr_1_32?dchild=1&keywords=m.2+nvme&qid=1623783278&sr=8-32

 

good enough for a boot drive

 

20 for the 128

30 for the 256

are they fast? I literally know nothing about computers. I brought a WD blue M.2 last summer, that's 1TB for my games

[Mister Woof]

4 minutes ago, Carson.C said:

are they fast? I literally know nothing about computers. I brought a WD blue M.2 last summer, that's 1TB for my games

I mean it's better than a hard drive, and probably well good for just a boot drive.

 

But you usually have to pick only one or two out of three

 

Cheap

Reliable

Fast